Those spectating at athletic events are frequently required to stare into the sun. Outdoor football games offer a prime example of the phenomenon. Programs are usually available at such sporting events. The publishers of the programs would be pleased to sell more programs. The advertisers in the programs would be pleased to receive heightened exposure. This invention claims a page of a sports program, which could be the back page, that detaches from the program and is constructed to form a trouble-free sun visor for one occasion. Wearing the visor can heighten the wearer's identification with the participants in the event and can heighten the exposure of an advertiser.
There are problems involved with designing a sun visor to be formed from a detachable page of program. The material that forms a program page, even the front or back cover page, does not naturally exhibit the desired rigidity and toughness. A trouble-free program sun visor, therefore, must be designed to overcome these problems presented by the material of a typical program page, that is a tendency to tear easily and not to retain shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,679,047 to Bozzi teaches a visor to be formed from a printed program for athletic events. The visor of Bozzi requires two pieces to be connected in order to form the band that encircles the head. Typically, pages of programs, however, do not have the requisite rigidity to form that connection reliably. They are likely to tear or come apart, even during one wearing. Such a troublesome visor is unsatisfactory and little better than no visor at all. An advertiser would not want to become associated with a visor that was not trouble-free. Bozzi's invention further requires the use of a full page spread, i.e., a double page from a printed program. The present invention is designed to be constructed from a single page of a standard athletic event program, which page could be the back page. The present invention offers a visor that cannot become separated without tearing and that offers no particularly weakened points susceptible of tearing.
Bozzi's invention further makes no use of the portion of the page that does not comprise either the band or the front of the visor. The present invention is adapted to offer this interior portion of the page as a particularly useful space for advertisement and team identification.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,246,659 to Lyons; 4,747,164 to Foulke; and 1,030,173 to Haggerty relate to hats or visors to be formed from a planar unitary blank of paper board. Part of the value of designing hats to be formed from a blank of paper board resides in the efficiency in manufacturing from an integral piece of material and the efficiency of shipping in a flat or knocked down condition. Such concerns do not relate to the present invention. Improving shipping and manufacturing efficiency for novelty hats is not related to providing a one-time sun visor for sporting events, constructed from materials on hand. Haggerty teaches a sun visor, eye shade and advertising device. Haggerty's advertising device, however, does not occupy the particularly prominent position of the front crown of the head, as it does in the present invention. Rather, Haggerty's advertising device drapes down the back of the neck. Further, since Haggerty, as with Lyons and Foulke, is not constrained to form his hat from a page of a program, Haggerty does not teach, and has no need to teach, a substantially rectangular interior portion. Lyons, like Haggerty, teaches a pop-up hat and blank for forming the same. Lyons, like Haggerty, is not constrained to form a hat from a detachable page of a program. Lyons does not teach a substantially rectangular interior portion. Foulke, as with the above, teaches a hat and method for making the hat that is not constrained to a blank formed of a detachable page of a program. Foulke does not teach a substantially rectangular interior portion. Neither Foulke, Haggerty or Lyons teach an interior portion bisected by a fold line substantially parallel to the front of the visor. The fold line of the present invention permits the interior portion to be strengthened by being doubled over. Such strengthening helps ensure that the advertising section maintains its shape. Lyons and Foulke are not concerned with advertising. Neither Lyons, Foulke or Haggerty are concerned with strengthening the interior section since they are working with a blank of paperboard that may be designed with the rigidity sufficient to serve the functions of the hat without any subsidiary support concerns.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,471 to Quigley teaches head gear formed of a resilient material such as foam rubber. Quigley's invention is not restrained to being formed from a detachable page of a program. Indeed, Quigley utilizes a foam material with substantial thickness to insure sufficient rigidity. Quigley's invention does not teach, and has no need for, the fold line bisecting the interior section.
It is an object of the present invention to teach the design of a page of a sports program that can be detached and used for a one-time trouble-free sun visor. The visor offers opportunity, by design and coloring, to identify the spectator with a participant of the sporting event and, possibly, to identify a supporting advertiser. Such a visor can be reversible wherein one side of the page displays the insignia of one team while the other side of the page displays the insignia of the other team. It is a further object of the invention for the visor to be trouble free. To that end, the visor is one-piece, utilizing the totality of the page and avoiding having to connect pieces of the program page paper together to form any part of the visor.